In construction of multi-story buildings, there is a double hazard that workers may fall causing severe injury or death to themselves, and tools and equipment may fall causing injury or death to people below.
To prevent such accidents, some safety standards require nets to be installed along the perimeter of the building just below the level of work being performed, but in no event should the dropping distance exceed about twenty five feet. As floors are added in a building under construction, the net is raised.
One form of safety net system which is widely used is shown in Arthur Nusbaum U.S. Pat. No. 3,949,834 entitled "Safety Net and Adjustable Support Therefor". While this is effective from a safety standpoint, it has a serious drawback in that lifting the net from one floor to the next requires that it be disassembled at the one floor, and the components moved to the next floor and reassembled there. This is time-consuming, takes workers away from their duties, and interferes with construction. For a fifty-story building, this may have to be done up to fifty times.
There is a need for such a safety net system which can be lifted from one floor to the next in a minimum of time and minimum delay of the work in progress.